THE SOUTH AFRICAN ALPACA BREEDERS’SOCIETY

Affiliated to the South African Stud Book and Livestock Improvement Association

Annual General Meeting

At 10:15 am on Saturday 25th October 2008

at UnionHigh School, Graaf Reinet.

MINUTES

  1. Welcome all members and confirm a quorum of paid up members present.

Members present: PJ Garbutt, D. Kruger, L Ermen, J Brodie, G.Lindhorst, Eva TatzReither, Jenny + Brian Kemlo, Lorna Ramsden, Verena + Manfred Hinsch, Abbott + Carol Erasmus, Rita Moore, Udo Mettendorff, Marion + Marco Johnston, Sally Kingwill, Stan + Leni Langkilde, Dietmar Kiel, Mr + Mrs Andrew Pringle.

  1. Apologies

Apologies were submitted by all those not attending

  1. Confirm the Minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting

Confirmed.Proposed: Manfred HinschSeconded: Lorna Ramsden

3.1Matters Arising

Nothing to report

  1. Table the reports by Council

4.1President

SAABS President's Report for the period October 2007 to October 2008

Dear Members,

In writing this report is has become clear to me that as a Society it is now time to move from a rules and legislation phase into one that serves the real interests of each of us.

I see these as:-

1) Breeding Improvement

2) Animal Health and Well-being

3) Fibre Production

4) Fibre Appreciation and Optimization

5) Market Development

By focusing our energies in these areas we ensure that our industry becomes sustainable. This should be our most important concern. I love my alpacas and they bring me joy and this is the only reason that I have become so involved and passionate about them. Their beautiful essence is a mystery that I am drawn too.

Dietmar brought up a very important point which has caused me to reflect carefully on the past year. Being on Council has not been fun. It has been a draining and unpleasant experience that I do not want repeated.

It is my hope that over the next year our Society moves forward positively with the sole purpose of enhancing our industry and allowing us to have fun while we do it.

There are just a few points that I wish to cover in my report.

Registration:

The Inspection Checklist for SA Born Alpacas for Registration has been discussed at workshops in MooiRiver and the Cape. It is presented for voting and it is my hope that it is adopted so that the registration process can be completed.

Male Certification is also presented for voting. At the last AGM it was accepted that Male Certification be implemented and Council has presented a document for this process. There were many discussions on the requirements for certification and its merits.

There is also a proposal that Male Certification be postponed and its merits be re-considered. It is an individual's right to make their own choices as to how they wish to breed and this decision takes into account the resources available to that breeder. Our industry is mainly made up of "pet type" breeders. There are very few commercial breeders and this means that their approach to breeding is very different. For "pet type" breeders a sophisticated screening form is too complex and takes the fun out of what they are doing. For commercial breeders, the screening form or performance testing allows them to make a more detailed assessment of their males and helps them with breeding decisions.

Importations:

In the last few years, importations have taken up the most of Council's time. This last year has been no different.

It is Council's responsibility to ensure that we comply with our Society’s constitution, its laws and regulations. As you are aware Council took action when it found that Gavin Lindhorst had not complied with the conditions stated in the Import Application. The dispute was settled after a prolonged period and my thanks go to James Brodie for the mediation role he played. In the settlement it was agreed and accepted that a fine of R2000 and a time limit of 12 months be imposed for the "Non-Notification of an Imported Male - Non-compliance with the Application to Import".

My thanks also go to Lee Ermen and Dietmar Kiel for responsibly upholding our regulations. Council's decisions were unanimous and were directed at the actions of non-compliance and not at Gavin himself. To some it may appear that we abused our authority but I can state with a clear conscience that our sole motivation was based on serving the interests of our Society and its members.

Importation are an import part of our industry and it is Council's responsibility to ensure that only those animals that help enhance our national herd are allowed into the country. Sub-standard animals with high microns do not add genetic value and our current Minimum Breed Standard with an upper limit of 23 microns ensures low micron animals are imported. Our import application also addresses the importation of males. We know that an older male who has many coverings will have higher microns and therefore requires special consideration by Council when reviewing the import application.

Marketing:-

Marketing has not progressed and there is no structured approach in place. Eva presented a budget for about R20,000. This was considered high and amongst all that was happening there were no resources or energy to put together a focused program.

Minimum Breed Standard:

In the last few months our financial world has been turned upside down. Our rand has dropped from R6.50 to R10.00 and this impacts our industry. Based on import parity, a female alpaca should have jumped in price from R35000 to R54000. Importations will either cost more or if the price is not increased the quality bar would have to be lowered. In accordance with clause 9y of the constitution, our Minimum Breed Standard was adopted in 2004 by Council. This standard was compiled after investigating many other standards such as International Alpaca Judging School (IAJS), British Alpaca Society, Australian Alpaca Association and International Alpaca Standard. It has many good points and sets a maximum micron limit. I strongly suggest that this quality bar never be lowered through the acceptance of IAJS. IAJS is a lower standard and will lead to lower quality alpacas being imported due to their lower cost. This will not serve our industry.

Financial:

We are financially sound and strong. We have sufficient funds to start an alpaca awareness campaign that could be maintained.

Future Alpaca Sales:

Over the last few years many breeders have been building their own herds. Soon they will have reached a point where they are wanting to reap the rewards of their investment and start selling excess alpacas.

It is suggested that we determine the number of alpacas that our members are looking to sell over the next year so that Council can assess it together with importations so that a coordinated marketing approach is adopted.

Secretarial:

During the year Council accepted that Di Kruger be remunerated at R1000/month for here services as Secretary. Di has been a fantastic supporter of our industry and served us well. The monthly payment does not compensate her fully for all the time she dedicates in service. I ask that each of you support her efforts by ensuring that all documentation sent to her is correct. It is my hope that she continue in this role. Inconjunction with Studbook we are slowly bring the register upto date. Acceptance of the Inspection Checklist will complete this process. I sincerely thank Di for the commitment and dedication she has shown.

I thank my Council for your time and energy and wish that our new Council, President and Vice-President a fun filled and productive term of office.

Kind Regards

Peter-John Garbutt

SAAS President

4.2Treasurer – Financial statement and report

Secretary’s Report

Activities

  • May: Reportback by PJ on the World Alpaca Conference
  • Inspections Workshop 30th August 2008 : Serena Alpacas – attended by 8 people.

Landskroon – attended by 14 people

  • Shearing Workshop at Landskoon x 2 (due to excessive demand!)
  • Alpaca Fibre Workshop: Sat 13th September - African Alpacas

Membership

We have 7 new members join during the year and 3 resigned due to them selling all their alpacas.

Communications

a. Website

The website is currently being hosted by Dynamic IT at a cost of R171 per month. This is the cheapest hosting fee we have been able to find.

At a meeting in March Lee and I requested the following changes:

  • To be given an email address - to be forwarded automatically to - copies of all mails be saved in info mailbox as well (done)
  • Vanessa from Orange Room design to send information on costs for development and maintenance
  • Keywords to be given to Vanessa so that the website features higher in search engine results
  • Discussion group - current barrier to entry is the yahoo login - Martin will investigate seamless alternatives (in the meantime Di set one up separately)
  • Home page - add PO Box address & change the photos
  • Club Documents - needs to be categorised so that documents are filed under headings that make them easy to find
  • Headings could be
  • Meeting Minutes
  • Documentation (to include breed standards, constitution etc)
  • Presentations and workshops
  • Newsletter (Vanessa to quote on compilation)
  • Remove unnecessary archive page
  • What we need is for the upload and delete function to work and to allow us to be specific in placement and we need to know the size limitations on documents so that we don't think things are broken when it is merely a size issue.
  • Members to be encouraged to send in alpaca pictures - best to be selected and put on home page, others to be put on a gallery page (to be created) - we now have a selection of pictures but need the gallery page to be created.
  • Currently articles cannot be attached - need to improve upload ability

After many emails requesting action and the excuses ranging from a new baby, a burglary, a holiday, sickness etc. we have the following answer:

“I have had a meeting with Mexcom and their development team. They are in a position to assist with the current site and can make changes /additional pages etc.

I have made it clear to them of the history with regards to the site and the people involved over the last months/year. They know that their services needs to be economical and the turnaround must be of a fast nature.

They normally charge R 550.00 per hour for development work - However as a preferred business partner they will extend an hourly rate of R 350.00 ex V.A.T to Alpaca Society. “

We have also attached a quote from another company for comparison.

b. Listserve

I created a Alpaca Chat list-server in February 2008 and 20 members signed up. However, only two people (PJ) ever posted anything apart from me. Over a period of 6 months I posted 42 articles that I thought would be of interest to the members. Then I was blocked when trying to load new articles so stopped but now it is allowing me to do so again – possibly there was a lack of activity from the members due to their mail being blocked too?

(Members agreed that they had not received the articles)

c. Publicity

It was decided not to advertise in SA Studbreeder again as there was very little response to last years advert and it is costly.

There were five articles featuring alpacas in the local press which have been added to the website.

Studbook

In order to learn how to use Logix as an administrator I visited Studbook in July and met Marietjie Delport and Chantal Germishuizen. Chantal is the person who loads most of our information and the person that I communicate with most.

It was a very interesting start for me as administrator of the registrations and certificates. There were 3 categories of members

1. Those who just went ahead and continued to deal with Studbook by themselves

2. Those who dealt with me – thank you for your patience (!)

3. Those that mixed and matched and did a bit of both – causing great confusion when animals suddenly popped up on inventories that were not on my lists and created lots of to-ing and fro-ing of emails in order to sort out what was going on.

However, some long standing problems were resolved and I hope I added value to the process. A lot of confusion arises due to the wrong and inconsistent spelling of names – breeders must be more careful when sending in the details so that these mistakes are not carried down from generation to generation.

Currently I am keeping copies of certificates as requested, but I think this is rather a waste of paper as I can look up the certificate on Logix when necessary.

In addition, when visiting studbook, I spoke to Mr Gerald Hallowell about the recording of fleece details in Logix so that a complete fibre record can be kept of each animal.

The wool samples would have to be tested at the Wool Testing Bureua at Port Elizabeth. A herd list could then be drawn from Logix and sent with the fleece samples to the Testing Bureau so that there would not be any doubt about the identities of the animals tested. The Wool Testing Bureau would then supply Studbook with the results together with each animal’s identities and they would then ensure that the data was loaded into Logix.

New registration certificates – the certificates that we agreed upon previously have not yet been implemented – they seem to have got bogged down in the Studbook IT department. I am following up with Herman Labuschagne.

The Studbook statistical section of Logix is not reflecting the true figures of animals in the country – as soon as this is rectified I will notify everyone of the current number.

General

It has been a very busy year and although it appears we have not moved forward very much there has been a lot of work done behind the scenes – predominantly by PJ Garbutt - and the rest of Council have worked very hard too! Importation matters took up a lot of time and effort and hopefully the next year will be more constructively progressive.

Di Kruger

22/10/2008

Lorna thanked Di for her input with the registration process.

  1. Vote on all Proposals as detailed on pages 3, 4, 5, 6, 78.

All members were called to declare the proxies they held.

Gavin stated that he had a proxy belonging to Gareth Harris who no longer had alpacas.

There was discussion about whether a person who no longer owns an alpaca should be allowed to vote. Lorna said we need to look at the principle rather than particular cases.

Gavin clarified that the proxy issuer intended to leave the country and therefore it was not probable that he would own alpacas in the country again.

Lorna said what happens to the members rights if an alpaca dies and the breeder is looking to buy a new one?

Manfred asked whether the constitution offered any direction on members voting rights.

PJ stated that per our Constitution and Studbook, a person must beactively breeding alpacas to be a member with full voting rights. The status of a paid-up member who sells his animals, immediately changes from an Ordinary Member with full voting rights to an Associate member with no voting rights.

In terms of the constitution the definition of an ordinary member requires that they be actively breeding alpacas, a person who does not physically own alpacas at the time of the AGM cannot be regarded as actively breeding. It was ruled that this proxy was not accepted.

All proxy voting was declared by proxy holders and verified by the Secretary.

Proposal 1: Matter Arising from 2007 AGM

Vote 1.1 – Inspection Checklist

It is hereby proposed to adopt the Inspection Checklist. Each breeder shall be allowed to inspect their own South African born alpacas and only those that do not have the disqualifying traits shall be accepted for registration.

Proposed by : Matters Arising from 2007 AGM

Lorna said she had not received it so people were given time to read through it. PJ explained how it would work and that the vote was to accept the principle of the document, minor amendments could be enacted by Council in the future.

Gavin asked how is it marked – PJ told him to write where you needed to or tick the box,

Lorna commented that recording weight is a problem as not all breeders have scales.

Members requested that it be minuted that council must review the checklist as it is used as a measure for registration of all RSA born alpacas. There are many RSA born alpacas that are birth notified but are not yet registered and this checklist provides the inspection criteria for acceptance for registration. All RSA born alpacas that meet with the requirements stated in the checklist shall be accepted for registration.

Accepted: For: 48 Votes – Against: 0 Votes

Vote 1.2 – Male Certification.

PJ – male certification is not mandatory. If a breeder wishes to take the next step and conduct a more detailed assessment of their males, the male certification schedule provides a measurement tool for this. Each breeder would be allowed to use this tool themselves. It is a baseline – a starting point from which to move on. If it is not working then council will review and amend it further. Male certification is carried out a 3 years of age.